Mountain Bikes, Bass Guitar, and other stuff I like

So it's been a crappy week at work. Meh. Oh and for some reason I also thought it would be a good idea to take off this week from my bike training.  I think I could take off for 6 months and I would still be tight in places and have nagging tweaks.  That said, I really don't need to take off that long from biking because it really keeps things in perspective when it comes to work.   Renee, when you read this, if I ever decide to take off 6 days from biking again THEN go up to the N. Georgia mountains to bike, you have permission to slap the ever-lovin' snot out of me! Today was absolutely brutal.  I have owned those climbs on previous rides just a few months ago but today I was hiking up them for Pete's sake!  Gasping for air and heart rate at 175. Jesus.  This was definitely a visit to the Hiott pain cave.  Trails were sloppy from rain night before so I kept mostly to jeep roads. It was almost like a road ride.  Unending climbing up jeep roads ...

I did a 6 hour mountain bike race at Blanket's Creek Race to Sunset yesterday and wow did the time fly.  I was in such a zen-state of groove that the race seemed to blur by.   The course was in supreme shape and had a lot of bite due to rain the night before.  A far cry from last year's powder keg. I did the same race last year and it seemed a lot longer. I took more breaks between laps last year and was stretching between laps. Not this year. Maybe it seemed shorter because of the shorter laps, 7 miles versus 11 miles. Also, the laps were relatively easy with not much technical riding.  My average speed starting out was 10.5mph and ended up being 9.7mph. My first lap was about 4 minutes off pace due to getting caught in the middle of the pack on the Le Mans start and numerous logjams on the first lap.  I actually did an 8th lap but it didn't count since I missed the cutoff. I should've gotten credit for a half-lap for the effort alone  ! This was my best ...